Sunday, April 26, 2009

What in the name of Pete happened to Spring? So much for that... Are there really states talking seccession over stimulus payouts? Aren't these guys in the party of that did the first stimulus bill? This country is amazing... We're a Nielson family this week. I made sure to watch Dollhouse and GI Joe: Resolute. Let me know if there's anything else you think I should log... Should I be worried about swine flu? Mrs. TANBI says no... I think it is likely that the firing of Paul Junior by Paul Senior was a TV thing... Wnet to see "State of Play" the other night. It made me want to find the foundation TV show n DVD... I'm seriously wondering if Chrysler going backrupt will make problems for me as a Dodge owner... Congrats to the CMU School of Drama Award winners... Anyone else think the solution to the piracy thing might be for the container ships to carry a few extra anvils? Just a thought... Trying hard to get through the last week if school. Please forward any advice... Seems like the people chasing down the torture policy are making decent headway... I missed the Pens today. I wonder what happened... Are you going for your free piece of KFC grilled chicken? Me either... A few more days and maybe I'll turn the comments on again... Anyone want a cat? Or a pair of cats? I think maybe we're looking to thin the herd here on the Kitten Ranch... I am doing that whole father/son thing rather poorly right now. Not really sure what to do about that... The Bulls evened their playoff series? Maybe I should be paying attention... Probably tomorrow evening we will do the annual air-conditioning switchover... Looks like I am not going to NYC for Showcase this year, but I likely will be soon after to see Mrs. Bogart... So far the new oven and range top have not casued the house to burn down...

Saturday, April 18, 2009

So today with a little help from a friend I finished up the appliance installation I started the other day. We went from this:

to this:

Except for the weight this was a little simpler than the first job. There is a little bit of a lingering levelness issue, but maybe I will forget - but probably not, non-parallel and non-perpendicular lines in homes (I mean ones that are supposed to be one or the other) drive me batty. We came into a bit of an issue getting all three of level, plum, and true to the cabinet. I think there's a better split the difference available, but it's a battle for another day.

The electrical was the same as the last, with all of the same caveats, and this time instead of having to open up the rough opening in both dimensions we actually wound up closing up some of the height. You can't see it in the photo, but there's a raw pine board at the bottom that needs to be finished. Little paint, should be fine.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

So, as long as taking the old wiring away and doing exactly what was there again is a reasonable procedure, I may have made a staggering improvement to our kitchen in only a couple of hours.

Out with the old...

... and in with the new:

This is part of Mrs. TANBI and my holiday presents to each other. It got a little derailed by family events and we're only now catching up.

The project isn't that complicated. My only real difficulty was getting the tools on the work where they needed to go. It's hard to tuck a saw in close to the wall, and even harder getting my frame under the thing when its in place to do the wiring. I did remember to switch of the breaker, so I didn't jolt myself; but as a natural paranoid I think I will be wondering if my kitchen is on fire for a little while before I allow myself to be confident about the electrical connection.

Anyway, it's not like its an induction top or anything, just b-flat radiant glass, but still - 1000% better than before.

Now, there's an even larger box still unopened. I think I will take a shot at that this weekend.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Here's an iPhone App I would like someone to get on. It would be called "Stop Everything" and it would do that.

For reasons beyond understanding the battery life on my phone is really very unpredictable. When I ask all the other iPhone toting people around me they all seem to think that "it's probably doing something in the background." That's after they ask if it is pushing email (which it isn't) or if Bluetooth is enabled (which it isn't either).

I have this suspicion that the culprit is actually the wifi at work. I think the phone is acquiring and dropping and acquiring and dropping all day long and that each time it does that it looks for the 3G and then authenticates with the wifi and then looks for the 3G and then authenticates with the wifi. And that all that churning uses juice.

If I am right then the answer might just be to disable the wifi. But what's the point of having wifi if you can't turn it on?

Now I had been under the impression that the iPhone build I have actually doesn't do anything in the background. Isn't that one of the touted features of the next release? But maybe it does, or maybe when you start something and then click away, perhaps it finishes what you started. More than once I have unlocked the phone to find the iTunes player going - which I can only imagine is a result of my randomly pushing an intricate series of fingerstrokes in my pocket, without putting my hand in my pocket. But I digress.

So if it is possible that the thing is running apps in the background, keeping track of my location on a map, or playing tunes, or searing for movies or whatever it's doing, I would really like a button that just says "STOP EVERYTHING!" Becuase as it is you have to go from app to app hoping to find something that looks like it is being the Dracula to your battery. I don't know about you, but I never really think I find anything.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

So I have been thinking some about the douchebag that shot the Pittsburgh Police officers last weekend. Part of the story has me a little worried. The issue here is that the guy didn't just have guns - a pistol, a long gun, and a semi-automatic rifle - but that he also had a store of food and the like because he was preparing for a hostile invasion of the United States.

Now, I will just stipulate from the top: loony. In addition to a hostile invasion he was also afraid that the Obama government would take away his guns and that the world was run by a Zionist Conspiracy. So, loony, but...

Does being loony make you want to prepare for such things, or does preparing for such things make you loony?

I guess the nature of the thing you are preparing for might make a difference, but I worry that if the truth is more in the latter than the former that the actual reasons might not matter, it might simply be the preparation. I suppose there have been people like this often through the history of the US. There were people with fallout shelters in the 50s. We had more fallout shelters and "survivalists" in the 70s and 80s. All of these people are labeled "fringy" by the mainstream. But I think it is interesting that many of these people come to the same behavioral conclusion from different ideological roots. You've got your religious crazies and your anti-government crazies, and your anti-technology crazies.

Many, many starting points all with one finish line: loony.

This is all just fine and dandy as an academic conversation, but for me it seems like it might be something we should look at more closely. The reasoning being that I believe it's a fairly short, slippery slope from functioning, rational human being to loony and I believe that if preparing for the worst causes people to become loony then we might be at a very important national juncture right now. I come to this conclusion through thoughts in my own allegedly not loony mind.

The thoughts go like this: not too long ago it seemed like it might be a good idea to have some cash on hand. Interest rates were crap anyway; under your mattress pays just a little bit less than a savings account, and what with the news and all the banks seeming to be in trouble it just seemed like a good notion. I mean, even federally insured accounts are probably inaccessible for some finite period of time after a bank problem. You don't get to stop everything and wait for the FDIC to sort things out, and so maybe having some cash around isn't too loony.

From there it isn't too far to the idea that cash isn't what you're going to need if there's a problem. I mean a single bank problem might be solvable with cash, but a multiple bank failure is going to be a problem of a totally different kind. What with all the TV news talking about how all the banks are in difficulty and that it isn't just a domestic problem but an international one you have to start to wonder: well if I can't get to my money how is the guy that runs the grocery or the gas station going to get to his money. And without that cash in play how will they restock stores and without things to buy in the stores what good will that cash I decided to hang onto be?

So it's not so much cash I should be laying it, it's stuff: several weeks of food and fuel. Swell. I've gone from concerned bank customer to 50s bomb shelter material pretty quickly. How far from there to survivalist? I think probably not too far.

Once you have this stuff, well, if you prepared when other people didn't, well, then you're going to have to be in position to keep other people from taking your stuff, yes? Might be a good idea to have a few guns around and some ammo. Maybe a something like a pistol, a long gun, and a semi-automatic rifle - probably a shotgun too.

Here to think a minute ago my chief concern was cashing a check, and now I really am wondering does preparing make you loony, or is it just loony people who prepare - or does it even matter? It does seem a little counter intuitive though that the most healthy course might be just to do nothing and hope for the best.

NorthJersey.com: "Students in a lecture class at Carnegie Mellon University were packing up to leave when Elliott Curtis, their instructor, called them back to their seats, saying he'd forgotten a key part of the lesson."

Carnegie Mellon University: "A team of Carnegie Mellon University students from different artistic disciplines is taking their music to the streets. They are performing 10- to 30-minute operettas at public bus stops in Pittsburgh and New York City."

ExhibiTricks: "In a recent post, I asked people to suggest 'Museums Worth a Special Trip.' One thing I've noticed about the museums suggested is that many, if not most of them, are the products of strong-minded founders. Which begs the question, 'Is Creativity a Team Sport'?"

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Here, root yourselves beside me. I am the tree planted by the river, Which will not be moved. I, the rock, I the river, I the tree I am yours--your passages have been paid. Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need For this bright morning dawning for you. History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, Need not be lived again.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Nice when the last ellipses runs off the page. Then I can do another one without feeling like I am cheating... I don't live too close to the shootings, thanks for asking... I knew there would be room for all that cardboard... We're having a seder, would you like to come? Send me an email... Poor Connecticut, just couldn't get it done... SCC was great last week and will be even better this week. The promo says "it's a matter of life & death!" I am pretty sure that has nothing to do with the story and everything to do with the ratings... People are going to twitter your meetings, get into the 90's and get over it... Sometime something happens at work and I don't even know where to begin. Guess I will have to figure something out... The shooter was concerned about "Zionist Activists." I'm not sure there really is such a thing anymore... Each time I go to Red Robin I remember that last time I went to Red Robin I suggested that we not go to Red Robin anymore... I have a Scribd account that is pretty much all documents of announcements I get as email, maybe Blogger should introduce a way to post .pdf's within their normal app... Our newest cat still hasn't really made the adjustment to our home. Anyone in the market to adopt? Applications are being taken... I officially purchased Mrs. TANBI's 2008 holiday gifts today. Funny how life gets in the way. I think I am going to need some installation help... I watched Norm build a "Lazy Susan Table" last night. I think they glossed over the details of the bearing in the plane of the larger surface... Today I woke up really hoping to get to watch a Steelers game. It is possible that I am now 100% Yinzer... I got an email, a robo-call, and an SMS to tell me that they're turning off the power at work tonight. I feel potentially over-informed... Problem with the guy that did the shooting, I think it's a fairly slippery slope until you are that guy... Talked to Dad today, he's still the hardest working patient in the Illinois medical system... Haven't heard anything from the tax guy. I am going to assume that's good news... Down to like four weeks of class. It's going to be over pretty soon. Better get to that grading... I know Lindsay likes "Two Cathedrals." I watched that and "Someone's Going to Emergency, Someone's Going to Jail" on the DVR the other night and have to say the latter is the better episode. The world might not agree with me. I miss "The West Wing" (thanks Bravo)... In a half day of work on Saturday my biggest achevement was making myself neurotic - and a little paperwork... Deepest condolences to the families of the officers shot in the line yesterday here in Pittsburgh. They died keeping us safe and we are all diminshed by their passing...

Saturday, April 04, 2009

What does it mean when your entire blog becomes about The Sarah Connor Chronicles? It could mean that things are such at work that most of what consumes you is not really fit for public discussion. There's probably some of that. It could mean that you don't think people would really be interested in the actual nuts and bolts of "how're you doing?" in the aftermath of your mother's passing. That might make a decent "This American Life" episode one day, but isn't much for day to day blogging: "couldn't sleep, again..." Often a lack of blogging reflects a certain stunned state where it just becomes difficult to do anything. There's definitely some of that.

Or maybe it just means that SCC is a rockin good TV show.

If you remember last time, and it would be hard not to because there's been so little here that it hasn't worked it's way off the page yet, I speculated about just what was going on with John Henry, and were we perhaps mislead about the nature of that AI. This week reinforced that notion some when we were informed by someone in the know that John Henry's future was all of our future. Now, that could have been maniacal monologueing, but in this case I am going to take it at face value and stand firmly on the ground I first staked out saying things are more complicated than they seem.

Then, they killed a major character with absolutely no fanfare. Which sucks a little because as a child of the 80's I was real happy to see Brian Austen Green getting to work, and getting such a good character. But then, there he was with a bullethole in his forehead and then a coroner's report just a few minutes later in case you thought maybe he wasn't dead - or that maybe he'd never been alive. Just one second he's there and the next, poof, he's gone. Damn.

With the deaths over the last three weeks, and adding last night's arrest they really are isolating John and Cameron. All of a sudden the little detail of if Derek really shot Jessie is actually not that little at all. Really I can't wait to see where it goes.

And a little bit more every week I think I will be upset if FOX doesn't keep the story going.